Delta Airlines Flies First Class With 80's Safety Video

In journalism school we are taught to not interject opinion in your reporting. The job is to articulate, without prejudice, stories about people, places, or issues and allow the reader to determine what they believe.

Fortunately for me, in this space I'm asked to convey opinion. Just recently, in fact, I wrote that revered brand Gillette had lost its way in terms of marketing to men. But I'm a glass-half-full guy. I like happy stories. I can't even listen to NPR anymore as really -- how many newscasts principally comprised of end-of-the-world scenarios can one person bear?

Today I was sent a new video by Delta airlines that I could not take my eyes off of despite its 5:21 run time (come on people, we're in an ADHD world now). It's called "Delta's 80's In-Flight Safety Video," and it's utterly brilliant.

From homages to break dancing and high fades, a Devo hat, cameos by the most under-appreciated 1980s TV star Gordon Shumway (a.k.a. "ALF") and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, to metal hair and more. It has it all -- particularly for a guy who went to high school in the '80s.

More than anything, however, Delta's dirty little secret is that it ropes viewers into actually focusing on what a live human being in an airplane -- often sitting right in front of you -- cannot do. It makes you pay attention to the airline safety instructions that virtually every passenger ignores, while conveying the message in a manner that leverages brilliant humor to endear the brand to virtually anyone watching.

Kudos to Delta. Without question, your '80s-themed safety video is flying first class.